Clayface
Matt Hagen, also known as ' Clayface' is a villain in Batman: The Animated Series. History Matt Hagen was an actor working for Imperial Pictures, once called "The Man of a million faces"Beware the Gray Ghost, but he had been disfigured in a terrible car accident. While recovering in a burn clinic, he was approached by the corrupt industrialist Roland Daggett, who made him a test subject for a compound called "Renuyu" (pronounced "Renew You") that he promised would immediately restore his young good looks. In payment, Hagen impersonated people in an illegal manner for Daggett. Hagen greatly resented this, but was forced to comply, as the Renuyu chemical was extremely addictive and Dagget was the sole producer. Daggett had Hagen impersonate Bruce Wayne in order to obtain certain files from Lucius Fox, who was inadvertently wounded. Wayne was arrested for the assault and brought in for questioning, but subsequently released. Hagen then attempted to steal a large amount of Renuyu from Daggett's factory. He was caught by Daggett's henchmen Germs and Raymond Bell, who tried to kill Hagen by pouring an entire vat of the chemical on to his face. Instead, the overdose saturated every cell in Hagen's body, altering his appearance to a bulky and misshapen clay-like form who can, for brief periods of time, shapeshift into anything or anyone he intends.Feat of Clay Part I Clayface subsequently attempted to get revenge on Daggett. He posed as an overweight woman in the audience of a talk show where Daggett was promoting Renuyu (after being released on the market) and then morphed back into himself to try and kill him. His efforts were stopped, however, by Batman using footage of Hagen's old movies to remind him of who he was, and thusly, what he has become. Clayface relents, and just prior to his capture by the Dark Knight, fakes his own death.Feat of Clay Part II Clayface then reappeared, coming out of hiding since the events of his vendetta against Daggett. Batman soon discovered that his body was beginning to deteriorate. He was temporarily restored to a semblance of health by a former medical adviser on his films, Dr. Stella Bates, who fell in love with Hagen. She sold her motel in order to raise funds for a laboratory in which to treat him. Batman tracked him down and prevented Dr. Bates' treatment of Clayface, partly because he stole the necessary formula compound from Wayne Biomedical Labs. During the ensuing fight, Hagen's unstable body absorbed too much rainwater to hold its cohesion, fell into the ocean, and he died once his body dissolved in the salt water. Abilities and Equipment *Clayface's unique cellular structure allowed him to transform his body into any shape or form he desires. *Previously Hagen was a talented actor, this gave him the capability to impersonate people with ease, allowing him to escape arrest frequently. *Clayface could extend his limbs a considerable distance, and could also control his size and density. Because of this, he was able to fashion blades, spikes, and massive blocks out of his form. *His amorphous body was able to absorb various objects, which he'd use to suffocate opponents. *Clayface had the ability to separate himself into different entities at once. Appearances * Feat of Clay Part I * Feat of Clay Part II * Mudslide * Beware the Gray Ghost (cameo) Video Games *The Adventures of Batman & Robin (SNES) *The Adventures of Batman & Robin (Sega CD) Trivia * The BTAS incarnaion of Clayface is a combination of two separate villains to have taken up the alias of Clayface from the original comics. The first was a golden-age villain named Basil Karlo who was an actor that went insane after his most iconic film was remade and he could find work prompting him to take up crime under the alias Clayface, while the other was a silver-age villain named Matt Hagen who was a treasure-hunter that stumbled upon a subterranean pool of chemicals which turned him into a clay monster. References Category:Characters Category:Male Characters Category:Bad Characters Category:Villains Category:Deceased Characters